London to Anywhere

Amex Gold 20k is back

2012-09-26T10:05:00.003+01:00

Apologies all for the big gap between posts - very busy time at work!

Just thought it was worth mentioning that the Amex Gold signup bonus has gone back up to 20k for a non-referral, and 22k for a referral from a friend (they get 12k).

https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/content/gold-card/

Recently Amex dropped this to 10k/12k for new customers (i.e. people who haven't had an Amex charge card in the last 6 months).

The Gold card is pretty good, gets you 2x membership rewards on travel / foreign spend etc (sometimes 3x as it does stack - i.e. if its a flight denoted in a foreign currency).

One key point to note however is that the minimum spend is £2k in 3 months (which might be a lot for some people - if you were on the minimum income of £20k, you'd be putting nearly 50% of your net salary through your Amex to meet the target!) so might be better waiting if you have a holiday to book or work expenses coming up.

Park Plaza Vondelpark, Amsterdam Review

2012-09-02T19:37:00.000+01:00

In August I had a 2 night weekend stay at the Park Plaza Vondelpark in Amsterdam. I had booked a Travelzoo rate for €89 per night including breakfast. I had also selected to e-standby upgrade this to a Whirlpool Suite for €25 per night as part of the booking process.

The hotel itself is in a very nice residential area on the outskirts of Amsterdam's centre. It is only a few minutes tram ride into the main area though, and the tram stop is only a very short walk away from the hotel. I found it all very quick and easy to get in using trams and really liked the quiet location to come back to at the end of the day.

Check-in was friendly and efficient and I was pleased to be given the Whirlpool Suite that I had on standby. It was located in an annex building right alongside the main building and for European standards it was very large with a huge bathroom.

As you will see in the picture there was a lounging area at the back of the room, with a swivel TV in the middle. There was also a desk and a Nespresso coffee machine. It all felt very spacious and there was plenty of cupboard space as well, and the all important electronic safe.

The main feature of the bathroom was the large whirlpool bath. There were plenty of jets and so it made for quite an effective jacuzzi.

There were also 2 large sinks as well as the toilet and also a bidet.

The only downside for me was the shower being attached to the wall in the bath area as I always prefer a separate walk-in shower, and they certainly had the space in this bathroom to accommodate it.

The breakfast room was served on the lower floor of the main room and it was a buffet featuring plenty of continental choices, along with eggs, beans, mushrooms, sausages and mini pancakes. It was all replenished often and there were also juices and a coffee machine that you could help yourself to.

Overall, for the price I paid it was an absolute bargain. Even if you do not stay here, I would thoroughly recommend visiting Amsterdam as there is plenty to see and do. Do not forget to try out the famous Fries from Vleminckx Sausmeesters. Here's some I had topped with Mayo and Satay sauce:

BA Sale - ends 25 September

2012-08-17T10:10:00.001+01:00

British Airways is having a "Go After The Games" flight sale for bookings up to 25 September.

Flights booked in Euro Traveller, World Traveller and World Traveller Plus, Club World and First are available for selected outbound travel dates between 10 September 2012 and 12 July 2013.

The easiest way to locate cheap fares is to use the cheapest fare tool which can be found here.
Economy wise, nothing overly exicting. There is LA from just over £500 and Singapore at £699.

Premium economy is a bit better as the tickets can be upgraded using Avios to Club World (if there is award availability) and here we see Hong Kong from £995, Tokyo from £989 and the Caribbean from around £800.

In Business, the fares are not that well discounted so there are none worthy of a mention.

Priority Club - 50% off (selected) HI redemptions - 24hrs only!

2012-08-15T16:04:00.002+01:00

On August 16th, for 24hrs only, Priority Club are offering 50% off selected redemptions for various Holiday Properties. See full details here: http://www.priorityclub.com/hotels/us/en/global/offers/hiresorts_one_day_sale

There are some decent looking properties on the splash page (mainly in the US though) for 12.5k points per night. Given how easy it generally is to earn PC points (you can earn 12.5k in 1-2 nights sometimes with promos) that's a pretty good deal.

Definitely worth a look anyway!

Tommi's Burger Joint, Marylebone - Review

2012-08-06T22:49:00.000+01:00

Tommi's Burger Joint

So we hit the hotly anticipated Tommi's Burger Joint his evening (opening night) to see whether it would actually live up to the hype. It's on Marylebone Lane near Bond Street Station so a very central location if you're out doing some shopping in London.

The place isn't very big - enough seating for 16-18 people, but has a nice laid back atmosphere. As we visited on opening night, all food had 50% off and 'Tommi's Cocktail Sauce' was free and unlimited (normally 50p). One big down side though was that they weren't doing any shakes - the previews suggested that in Iceland, the shakes are one of the highlights. However, free coffee was available and that's an ongoing offer.

Anyway, on to the burger. I ordered the steak burger, which is usually £7.95 ($12). It was good, but not great and looked like a tad underwhelming when it was brought over. I ordered it medium rare and while it was pink in the centre, the patty was fairly standard in all honestly. Was decent enough fare, but you expect more for £8, especially as it's order at the counter rather than table service. It did come with ketchup, mustard, mayo and salad as standard so there a good combination of tastes in terms of the sauces. You don't have to have all these sauces if you don't want - you just need to make it clear when you order.

The menu

As for the fries, these were very standard - could easily have been from McDonalds. They are an extra £2.90 for a moderate portion.

All in all was a nice enough meal which I was happy with it at half price. If I'd paid £11 for it, I probably would have been a bit disappointed, particularly when MeatLiquor is nearby and offers superior burgers for equal(ly high) prices. However, it does get packed at times.

The standard burger is however only £5 and I didn't try it, so I might give Tommi's another whirl at some point - and get a shake!

We've also got some pictures of the steak burger with cheese & bearnaise, so check these out at the bottom of the post.

If you're in central London and fancy a quick burger (but not McDs / BK !) you could do worse than Tommi's. But, you could also do better. You can find Tommi's Burger joint at 58 Marylebone Lane, W1.

Steak burger with cheese & bernaise

View from above

View from the side

Dach & Sons Hampstead - Burger Review

2012-08-04T18:31:00.000+01:00

Hampstead is nice. It's near to where I live, has a nice village feel to it, there are lots of nice gastropubs, a fantastic crêpe stand and it's within easy reach of central London. Now it also has a few restaurants - mostly chains but a few independents as well.

What it was missing was a laid back bar with decent food. That's now been sorted with the arrival of Dach & Sons which is right by the tube station in a great location.

I went with a friend for an lunch on a Saturday only a couple of weeks after opening. As I went early it was easy to get a table, but I can hear it can be more difficult in the evenings as it is quite popular. They do not take reservations. The interior is good, a new New York vibe with a bar serving beers that are different to the norm - we're talking American craft beers of different strengths and tastes. A decent match to the food that is offered.

Cheeseburger

Salt beef chilli

We both went for the cheeseburger. As you can see from the picture, it is exactly the colour you want it to be - pink throughout. It's a decent size and the bun is soft and holds it all together fine. While not the best burger I've ever had, it was solid and they're not all about the burgers - they have a variety of hot dogs as well, which looked great. They are the main focus, rather than the burger. I think everything is made on site, so it's all fresh and certainly tasted that way.

Now, look at the chilli. This was fantastic. I think it was made from salt beef which gave it a slightly different flavour to regular chilli, but in a good way!
It was eating it on its own and also putting some on the burger as well, as I couldn't get enough of it.

I hope that in the future they do a chilli burger as I think it would work really well.

The fries equalled the high standard set by the chilli. They are triple cooked using beef dripping which gives them tremendous flavour and a crunchy outside.

Mains costs £8 each and sides are about £4, so not cheap, but certainly fair and good value for Hampstead!

There is also an upstairs Purl bar run separately that serves high end cocktails. But what really impressed me was the outside terrace, which will be a great place to have a drink on a nice day. I think you'll be able to take food from the main dining area out there as well.

Outdoor terrace

Space is limited out on the terrace, but you don't have to go all the way up there to see if there is space. If you have a look at the picture at the start of the post you will see a 'lucky' light. If it just says lucky, you're fine and there is space out on the terrace. However, if the red "un" is also lit, well you can work out what this means.

Dach & Sons is certainly worth a visit, especially if you have each access to the Northern line and are a fan of hot dogs and American craft beers. They are at 68 Heath Street, Hampstead NW3.

Virgin Atlantic 13 hour rule out of Heathrow

2012-08-01T18:46:00.000+01:00

Just in case anybody is travelling out of Heathrow on Virgin Atlantic any time soon, I wanted to let you know that Virgin has quite a bizarre rule regarding pre-assigned seating:

If you have pre-assigned a seat online, you must complete online check-in 13 hours prior to departure, otherwise you will lose your seat assignment!

This only applies to flights out LHR. For all other airports, a much fairer 2 hour rule applies.

I do not know why they do this. I guess it's due to "operational" reasons.

You can find some more details on this rule here.

Virgin Atlantic Economy Rewards 50% Off...

2012-08-01T17:43:00.002+01:00

Another Virgin Atlantic deal again today. This time, 50% off all economy reward tickets to various destinations.

http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/frequentflyer/spendmiles/rewardflights/flightsformiles.jsp

To be honest, its not the best deal since VS taxes and fees on Y (economy) rewards come to almost the cost of a discounted economy ticket, so personally i think you're better off saving up your miles for a premium ticket.

Sometimes VS do 50% off of Premium Economy rewards (never Upper!) which is a much better deal. But hey, they're your miles! Although I find it hard to believe there isn't more value converting say 20k into 40k HHonors points and using at a Cat 6 (some are ~£200 a night) hotel.

Tesco Clubcard - Virgin Flying Club Miles - 50% bonus

2012-07-30T13:20:00.000+01:00

If you have any Tesco clubcard vouchers you don't need, there is currently a 50% bonus on conversions to Virgin Atlantic miles. It now means you will receive 937 miles for every £2.50 in vouchers.

http://www.tesco.com/clubcard/deals/product.aspx?R=2179

This probably isn't the best use of clubcard points (costs you 0.27p per mile at face), although it's much cheaper than buying at £15 per 1k (plus a standard £15 charge - so potentially £30 for 1k!).

So if you have some sat around or need to top your account up with a few points to reach a reward, this could be worth a look. Note, if you signup for "auto opt-in" (converts your clubcard points to miles going forward) you can earn another 1k.

This offer ends on August 31st.

20% off SPG Points - ends 31st August!

2012-07-27T15:56:00.001+01:00

A quick heads up that SPG are currently offering a 20% discount on purchasing points - down to $28 / 1k from $35. It's still not a great rate to buy, but given it's the only way to buy points for some FF schemes (for example Asiana), if you need a few extra to top up a balance, now is the time to do it.

https://buy.points.com/PointsPartnerFrames/partners/spg/container.html?language=en&product=BUY&CAMPAIGNCODE=SWSideNav&c=SWSideNav

Generally, with the exception of UA/CO and maybe a couple of others, SPG points transfer at 1:1 into most airline schemes and you also get a 5k bonus for every 20k you transfer, manufacturing a 1.25:1 rate! A complete list is available at: http://www.starwoodhotels.com/preferredguest/account/starpoints/transfer/airline_partner_list.html

HH Diamond Status - change to T&C - no more Diamond reward force!

2012-07-23T16:34:00.001+01:00

In one my earlier posts, I discussed the benefits of being a Diamond member of the HHonors reward scheme.

One of the better benefits of this, was the ability to 'force' the hotel to give you a reward room at 48hrs notice, regardless of availability. Well, its turns out that this benefit was a bit too good since in the T&C update of 19th July http://hhonors1.hilton.com/en_US/hh/terms.do they have now removed this benefit.

"Guaranteed reservations availability, subject to the restrictions stated herein, at hotels within the Hilton Worldwide portfolio when paid reservations are made before midnight hotel local time, two or more days (48 hours) prior to intended arrival. RESTRICTIONS: This guarantee does not apply to reservations paid for in part or in full by HHonors points, free night certificates issued by Hilton Worldwide."

This is a very annoying development and removes one of the big advantages that Diamond had over Gold. You're basically now left with a small points bonus and guaranteed Exec lounge status. To me, particularly if you frequent Hiltons with no Exec lounge, it only seems worth getting to Gold, then taking your business elsewhere to try to achieve status with another chain.

All in all, a bit disappointing.

Will I get my 20,000 points? - UPDATE

2012-07-23T13:31:00.001+01:00

As discussed previously here due to system issues I was unsure whether I would actually receive my 20k SPG sign-up bonus. Well good news for anyone who is about to hit the £1k mark - it posted absolutely fine.

Virgin Atlantic Economy Sale - ends July 27

2012-07-21T22:38:00.000+01:00

Autumn flights must be a bit on the slow side as Virgin Atlantic has released some sale fares.

Full listing here but highlights for me are:

London Heathrow to Chicago £449 (21 Aug 12 - 21 Oct 12)
London Heathrow to Miami £449 (21 Aug 12 - 21 Oct 12)
London Gatwick to various Caribbean destinations from £529.

London to New York is actually £489 which is not a great deal, but Chicago for £449 certainly is!

It's a longer flight than New York and I have rarely seen it cheaper than New York (which has many more flights per day).

It also looks like other airlines are matching these fares. For instance, most of the Star Alliance airlines that fly these routes have similar prices for the same dates. So take your pick!

Radisson Blu 3 for 2 using Amex

2012-07-21T22:25:00.000+01:00

Radisson Blu has a very good promo running until 30 September for American Express cardholders. Everyone who collects points/miles has an Amex so hopefully not too many people will miss out.

You can book via http://www.radisson.com/nightthree or you can use the promo code NIGHT3FR

The promotion excludes Radisson Blu Edwardian hotels (which covers most London Radisson hotels) and all brand hotels in Asia Pacific.

Obviously, you need 3 consecutive nights and the third night is free, plus you have to book using your Amex.

You also get 2,000 bonus points per eligible stay.

There is much better availability on this promo than the one mentioned here. Even the top hotels in Paris have this rate available on lots of dates, so this is definitely worth checking out.

Lufthansa A380 Sale - Ends 24th July

2012-07-18T22:40:00.001+01:00

Lufthansa are running a promo on selected A380 flights for London to Beijing, Tokyo, Johannesburg and Singapore with prices from £449.

http://www.lufthansa.com/online/portal/lh/uk/specials/booking?l=en&nodeid=2097008&cid=1000243

To me, Singapore for £499 stands out as a great deal. (Singapore is fantastic!) I've had a quick look and it seems like it has decent availability in October and early November (not so good in December disappointingly).

I've done a dummy booking and the seats are in Fare class K, which amazingly earns 50% with miles and more! But sadly 0% with UA/CO and Asiana (OZ). Worth checking your preferred partner though!
Also, you have to book by the 24th July so get in there quick!

50% off Club Carlson award nights

2012-07-17T18:09:00.000+01:00

Yet another Club Carlson related post, but they keep coming out with more and more offers!

I just got an email from them detailing a few different offers starting 1 August 2012.

They are available to Club Carlson members only at participating Radisson Blu, Park Plaza, and Park Inn by Radisson hotels in Europe, the Middle East and Africa bookings made between now and 29 September 2012 for stays beginning 1 August 2012 and completed no later than 30 September 2012.

It looks like America and Asia miss out.

Anyway the promotional codes to enter on the Club Carlson website are:

50REDEEM - This reduces the number of Points normally required to be redeem for a standard Award Night by 50%. Points + cash bookings are not elegible.
FREEBKFT - This gets you free breakfast for two each night of the stay
CCDOUBLEPOINTS - Double points if you stay 2 or more consecutive nights on eligible rates
WESILVER - 10% off best available rates on weekend stays, only for Club Carlson Silver & above

The 50% off award bookings looks like the stand-out deal as this means the top tier Club Carlson hotels are down to 25,000 points per night if available. This could be a good use of the points earned through various recent Club Carlson promotions.

I've only had time for a very quick search, but it looks like these codes are all subject to availability, so don't expect to be able to find the top Paris hotels for 25,000 points. You might be able to find something decent though in less popular places.

Will I get my 20,000 points?

2012-07-17T13:09:00.000+01:00

As many of you will probably have done, I recently applied for the SPG Amex For the 20,000 SPG points after £1k spend promotion (since this converts to 25k Airline miles with most schemes) however there is a well documented problem with people receiving 10k points instead of the promised 20k. See here.

Now I understand some people have seen their second 10k come through. I crossed the £1k spend threshold today so the big question is will I receive 10k or 20k!?!

You'd think a huge company like American Express would able to set up their IT systems to award 20k points for people who applied in a certain date range. But then I sometimes wonder if companies do this sort of thing on purpose to rely on people's ignorance / apathy to avoid paying out!

Radisson London Upgrade

2012-07-17T10:04:00.000+01:00

As mentioned the other day, I was taking advantage of a £50 cash+points rates at the Radisson Blu Edwardian Vanderbilt hotel in Kensington on a recent Friday night.

The rate was low as it was for a single room, but fortunately Club Carlson Silver status ensured it got upgraded to a Double room. I did have to ask at check-in but they were very nice about it and found me something right away. Of course it helped that the hotel did not seem too busy, so the availability was there.

While the staff were very nice and the hotel is in a very good location (right by the tube, lots of restaurants about), it is housed in an old building which meant that there was only one lift and it was a bit of a maze to get around. The rooms were fine but lacked "premium" features. For instance there was just a small LCD TV and the air conditioning did not work that well. Plus a very standard bathroom.

It's still definitely worth it for £50 and 10,000 points though if you need a fairly central London location.

By the way, I got my Club Carlson Silver status by status matching from SPG Gold. More details regarding status matching can be found here.

APD....!

2012-07-13T12:03:00.000+01:00

Some of you might have received an open letter from Virgin Atlantic talking about APD (basically tax on flights) - in the UK, this is a horrendous charge that really drives up the price of (especially premium) flights departing out of the UK.

To quote from the letter:
"Air Passenger Duty, or APD for short, is the tax you have to pay every time you fly from a UK airport. Introduced in the 1990s, over the last six years APD rates have gone through the roof for long-haul travel. A family of four flying in Economy to the Caribbean in 2006 paid £80 tax. From April this year they have to pay £324, and if they were to travel in Premium Economy or Upper Class they would have to pay £648."

These are pretty scary numbers (at least to me!) so if you get the chance head to http://www.afairtaxonflying.org/ and enter your details. It probably won't result in anything happening, but at least we will have tried.

Hilton Amsterdam

2012-07-12T18:10:00.000+01:00

A couple of months ago I had a stay at the Hilton in Amsterdam which is famous for a couple of reasons a) it was where John Lennon and Yoko Ono did one of their “bed-ins” for peace http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed-In#Amsterdam_Bed-in and b) a Dutch Rockstar named Herman Brood jumped off the roof… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Brood#Suicide_and_legacy

Anyway…it was a reward stay (Category 6) at 40k points per night, however as I was only Gold at the time and wanted into to lock-in usage of the Exec lounge, I redeemed for a premium room award at about 52k per night, which seemed a price worth paying at the time. Ironically, the hotel was very quiet so I would probably have been upgraded anyway, but never mind.

The hotel is in a decent location, near(ish) the city centre proper, however it is a bit of a walk from the nearest tram stop (~10 mins) so you might want to get a taxi to and from the Airport if you have a lot of luggage. If you’re travelling light, I’d certainly get the train into Centraal Station and take a tram.

The hotel can feel a bit off of the beaten track at night, but my understanding is that its in an affluent area and felt quite safe to me. There are a few decent restaurants nearby but you’ll probably want to take a tram into the centre as you’ll have many more options.

The room was an Exec room on a high floor, so the view was pretty impressive (right) and handy for the Exec Lounge on the top floor. The lounge is essentially a glass box on the roof, its not especially big but it has a good selection of food (inc. Chicken Satay one night – FTW!) and drinks including spirits you can help yourself to for a limited time. The only disappointment was that you couldn’t step out onto the roof to take in the view, but give the incident mentioned in the introduction, I can understand why.

There is also a decent Italian on the premises, however it was fairly expensive.

In general it’s a good hotel, very well presented and clean. Going against it are the facts that it’s expensive (but then ALL hotels in Amsterdam are!) and it’s a little bit far out from the centre. All in all though I’d give it an 8/10.

Cash + Points London Radisson for £50.

2012-07-12T00:05:00.000+01:00

With the Radisson promo ending on Sunday I'm trying to cram one more stay in to take advantage of the 50,000 points on offer.

The last stay was on my other half's account so this one will be on mine. I don't want to spend too much money so I was looking at Cash + Points prices as these rates are still eligible for the bonus.

I found this one for a Friday night at a London Radisson:

As you can see, I'm sacrificing 10,000 points but it's only costing me £50, although this is just a single room with no added extras.

I should end up with just over 40,000 points for this stay due to the online booking bonus and some points earned on the cash part of the booking. Not quite enough for a top tier Radisson but probably enough for a tier 2 and anyway I'll be adding it to the points I earned on a prior Park Inn stay, and hopefully a future Park Plaza stay.

And don't forget Club Carlson is fairly generous with status matches.

Michelin starred In N Out burger in London

2012-07-11T14:53:00.002+01:00

Ok, so not quite what the post title says, but Hot Dinners which is a great London restaurant review site, has details of the latest In N Out inspired burger.

Fattburger (not to be confused with the US chain Fatburger!) is going to be in Soho for 3 months at at The Sun and 13 Cantons on the corner of Great Pulteney Street and Beak Street in Soho. While the chefs do not have Michelin stars themselves, they have both cooked at different Michelin starred establishments. You can find more details out from Hot Dinners here.

Now the burger doesn't exactly look like an In N Out burger as there is much more filling, but they have gone for a slim patty which is the In N Out way, as opposed to the thick patties we tend to see in many London restaurants. The chefs also went on a trip to LA recently and In N Out was their favourite burger. Unfortunately, they are most certainly London prices ranging between £6.50 and £9 plus extra for fries (of course!). Remember In N Out is about $5 including fries and drink, although it is a 'fast food' environment.

The trouble is with so many burger places opening in London at the moment (we mentioned another new one Dach & Sons the other day) I don't know how we will find the time to try them all.

Hilton Diamond Status

2012-07-10T17:36:00.000+01:00

So..my Hilton Honors Diamond card arrived in the post. Firstly this was quite a surprise since I have been Gold for the past 2-3 years and despite requesting mulitple times on the website AND over the phone - my Gold card never arrived. Ah well.

The benefits of the Diamond card are as follows:

Point Bonuses - 50% bonus on base points - nice to have.

Complimentary High-Speed Internet Access - this is theorectically an excellent benefit (also applies to Gold members) as hotels, particularly more expensive ones, love to rip you off for Internet Access! I have noticed a trend recently though for more and more hotels to include Wifi in the room rate, which slightly devalues this benefit. Still, I'd be annoyed if they took it away.

Diamond Reservations Guarantee - this is a great benefit if you have a ton of points, not so good for cash (unless you're a millionaire obsessed with staying at a Hilton). In theory (excluding some really busy times) you log on 48hrs before you want a room and Hilton will always give you one. This sounds brilliant, except recently I wanted to use this benefit on a 3* Hilton in the UK (normal weekend price £56) and it was quoting me £210 for the Diamond Override! So, I won't be staying there. Driving the price right up just makes the benefit worthless.

For points on the other hand, if its a low tier hotel, then the points price IS the points price, so you'll always get a standard award room. If you have points to burn, this can really come in handy.

Diamond Elite Member On-Property Benefits - these vary, but generally you can expect free breakfast (which is awesome, as it means you can always book the cheapest rate), Exec Lounge access (again awesome, more on that in a later post!) and some kind of welcome gift (Fruit / Wine / Snacks) in your room when you arrive.

If you're based in the UK and have to make a number of stays for work, I'd certainly going after Hilton Status if you can. I had Platinum Status with Priority Club as well and Intercontinentals basically ignored it, while Marriott status doesn't have as good benefits.

Every now and then Hilton run promotions and challenges for Gold Status for 4 stays in 90 days. Gold comes with much the same benefits (difference being mainly no lounge access / Diamond guarantee) so if you have a couple of stays coming up anyway, its definitely worth doing a couple more cheap stays (~£50) to get Gold Status. If a promo comes up, we'll be posting it here.

Virgin Atlantic PE Reward Seat Sale

2012-07-09T15:32:00.000+01:00

Just received a mail from VS promoting discounted redemption rates for Premium Economy seats. I travelled to Dubai recently in VS PE and it's pretty good - the extra legroom and improved service make quite a big difference from Economy.

If you have Virgin miles sat around and don't think you'll ever get to 100k for an Upper class redemption, this is potentially a decent use - 35k + £415 to Chicago stands out as you can easily (and cheaply) get to anywhere else in the USA from there. As always in the UK though, the tax and surcharges are painful.

Bookings must be made by 16th July so don't hang about if this interests you! (Also I expect availability might disappear quickly)

TO/FROM UK MILES Taxes (from)

JFK/NEWARK 35,000 £415

CHICAGO 35,000 £415

WASHINGTON 38,500 £415

LONDON-ORLANDO 45,000 £392

MANCHESTER-ORLANDO 45,000 £394

GLASGOW-ORLANDO 45,000 £391

LONDON-LAS VEGAS 47,500 £418

BARBADOS 47,500 £427

DUBAI 40,000 £412

ACCRA 38,500 £462

DELHI 47,500 £477

SHANGHAI 50,000 £482

TOKYO 50,000 £493

MUMBAI 47,500 £441

Full details at http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/frequentflyer/spendmiles/rewardflights/flightsformiles.jsp

Singapore Airlines accidentally releases lots of award space...

2012-07-09T14:19:00.000+01:00

...and look what happens - you get 568 posts and counting on Flyertalk:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/united-mileageplus-consolidated/1364187-quick-heads-up-sq-releasing-almost-all-f-award-o.html

The loophole now seems to be closed, but while it was open for about a day it meant that Star Alliance partners had access to Singapore Airlines business and first award space which is normally only available to Singapore Airlines own members (Krisflyer).

This meant, for example, that people with decent United Mileage Plus balances could book into pretty much any route on Singapore Airlines using their miles.

Needless to say there were a lot of very happy people on Flyertalk.